The present invention relates to a new continuously-deployed passenger restraint system for passenger-carrying vehicles in unique forms with energy-absorbing features. Many patents for both three and four-point vehicle frame-mounted or a combination of vehicle door and frame mounted safety belt systems exist. However, prior construction fails in one way or another to provide a system that will,
1. hold the passenger in a force-distributed gentle manner to reduce or eliminate abdominal injury to a vehicle passenger caused by typical narrow belts that are especially inadequate for restraining pregnant women in high speed crashes, PA0 2. also hold the passenger in a direction substantially off of the main line of a head-on vehicle crash as well as on the main line of the crash, PA0 3. hold the passenger in a manner so as to prevent a torsional force on the upper body torso about the spinal axis of the vehicle passenger, PA0 4. provide restraint for any passenger, over age of four, equally well with especial effectiveness for restraint of pregnant women, PA0 5. cause no extra danger to an unbelted passenger as is the case for the air-bag-equipped car where any out of position passenger, such as caused by heavy braking or the like, can be seriously injured or killed, PA0 6. provide an ideal, automatically-adjusted, firm-fitting application of the belt system onto the passenger's body with one simple manual fastening action, PA0 7. provide an assistance or proffering feature to ease and induce application of the safety belt system by the passenger.
Three-point frame-mounted, or a combination of frame and door-mounted, passive restraint seat belts are in universal use in present day passenger-carrying vehicles. Because of their obvious inadequate upper-body restraining capability, they have not proven to be totally effective, and thus they are now being supplemented by Supplemental Inflatable Restraint(SIR) devices commonly called the "air bag". Since the air bag is an active, explosively-deployed device, with many inherent dangers to the more physically vulnerable, such as children, shorter, older or pregnant adults, as experience has clearly shown, a more fully effective, alternate or complimentary manual restraint system is highly desirable.
Patents have been issued over the past four decades for safety belt system designs intended to improve the upper-body restraint effectiveness over that provided by the three-point-mounted safety belt design now in universal use. All patent designs, for improved restraint systems examined, feature dual shoulder straps but lack the facility for easy application and lack full features to allow application of the belt system in a snug and fixed adjustment to the vehicle passenger's upper and lower torso.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,581 provides for automatic adjustment employing four spring-retracted reels, each of said retracting reels operating independently on an individual shoulder belt, of two, and on each half of a two-part lap belt, said lap belt being equipped with a center-fastening buckle. The basic deficiency of this concept is that the shoulder belts are not affixed to the lap belt in an abdominal-centered area to, 1. keep the shoulder belts properly in place and 2. to better help support the abdominal and chest area. The design of U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,246 overcomes this deficiency to some extent by using a continuous left half and a right half combination shoulder and lap belt. Each half of a two-piece center buckle rides loosely on one of each of the two belts but such arrangement does not provide for a securing of the center buckle along the belts, nor does it provide for a comfortable and adequate abdominal force-bearing surface.
The design of U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,569 overcomes the deficiencies of U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,246 by permanently securing each half of the centered application buckle to the shoulder/lap belts by short straps. However it employs two lower spring-loaded retractor reels with stronger springs than those used in the two upper shoulder belt retractors which, it is claimed, will hold the lap belt snug to the passenger's lap. Since this system contests one spring against another, the lap belt cannot be pulled completely snug upon the passenger's lap. More importantly, the two lower reel retracting springs must be identical in strength to prevent a very undesirable off-center creeping of the center buckle, very unfavorable to proper crash force distribution in the passenger's abdominal area. While the design of U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,233 overcomes the lack of snugness upon the passenger's lap, the lack of positive retention of centering of the application buckle, remains a problem. Also the crossing arrangement of the shoulder belts with the lap belt halves seems inconvenient and the belts do not store well out of the way when unoccupied, an important feature to promote public acceptance.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,488 seeks to address, maximally, the desirable feature of good stowability and therefore, ease of passenger entry into the seat. It employs an unconventional geared arrangement of two halves of the center-buckled lap belts. However it omits, entirely, an adequate means for snugly applying the lap belt to the passenger's lap, suggesting use of a fixed length lap belt for all passengers and such is surely not acceptable for wide use. While the above listed and discussed design patents have the greater quantity of the qualities of the subject patent application, there are other dual shoulder/single lap belt design patents but they all generally lack practicality, and also do not have means for positive retention of the centering of the center application buckle nor do they provide means for adequate distribution of crash forces over the abdominal area of the passenger.
In summary, none of the existing design patents, claiming improved dual shoulder belts, are incorporated into a total releasing and energy-absorbing and capturing restraint system or are equipped with an application-easing, proffering feature, as is proposed in the subject patent application. As will become apparent, all of the deficiencies discussed relative to the current art are uniquely overcome in the design for this patent application.